Resources

This report describes the environmental destruction, sickness, mortality, and damage to livelihoods that the plastic pollution crisis is causing. It outlines the problem – namely- the huge recent increase in the production and distribution of single-use plastics, and its expansion across the globe to countries lacking the capacity to collect, manage and recycle waste. And it spells out the solutions.

This report provides a detailed overview of the health impacts associated with plastic at every stage of its supply chain and lifecycle, and it reveals the numerous exposure routes through which human health is impacted at each stage.

By adding “brand audits” to the cleanups, the teams catalogued thousands of parent companies marketing many thousands more consumer brands found as plastic pollution collected in the countries represented. Our analysis of that data reveals the Top Polluters worldwide from participating brand audits.

Th e report calls for closure of the loophole in EU legislation that allows products made from recycled waste to contain these contaminants. It outlines the changes in EU and international policy that would allow proper implementation of the Stockholm Convention to protect health and the environment by setting strict limit values for defi ning waste as being hazardous (POPs waste) and disallowing it there for export and toxic recycling.